The New Tourism
A FEW years ago I came across a rather odd feature in the Guardian, in which it was claimed that there is now a ‘radical’ new way for people to visit cities abroad. The modern traveller, it seems, is becoming tired of the usual tourist areas and is seeking to branch out and savour the more unadulterated aspects of the all-round foreign experience.
Rather than hang around St. Peter’s Square, for example, waiting to catch a brief glimpse of the Pope as he feeds innocent white doves to the hungry crows who sweep down from the adjacent rooftops like angels of death, tourists now prefer to do their own thing. Not for them the open-topped double-decker buses and tour guides of the sight-seeing mainstream, oh no, they prefer to witness the more authentic side of a foreign city by following one of the locals. You guessed right, folks, the current trend is to follow a little old lady as she makes her way back to the nearby shanty town.
This strategy, or so we are told, will lead the visitor through the forgotten alleyways of his or her chosen location and allow them to see life as it really is. Providing, I would imagine, that one keeps a respectable distance from one’s unsuspecting host to avoid being arrested for stalking.
On a more serious note, surely this development reflects Western humanity’s continuing loss of personal initiative, decision-making and individuality? European tourists are now actively seeking to live through the eyes of another in the way that someone might assume the identity of a fictional character in a video game, happy to relinquish their own exploratory faculties in the quest to merge with the shuffling form of a distant foreign chaperone as they are led by the nose into uncharted territory.
Gone are the great pioneers and globetrotters of the past, men and women like Scott of the Antarctic and Gertrude of Arabia, since replaced by Dave-who-followed-Farouq-until-he-was-knifed-in-a-bazaar and Sharon-who-spent the-afternoon-with-a-depressed-Irishman-and-went-tumbling-off-the-Cliffs-of-Moher-and-into-the-sea.
The original purpose of touring was learning and scholarship before print was invented. Ms books were so expensive as to make it necessary for genuine students of many kinds to travel to a famous place of learning, and listen to a scholar read a book to them, or demonstrate something like dissection, mixing herbs for medicine or cooking, etc. Lecture means reading, This evlved into the Enlightenment Grand Tour that was supposed to finish off a young gentleman's education after university, or add to s erious intellectual's knowldge of the arts and sciences, eg listening to a famous composers music (no records or cds then), see the great works of art, listen to famous men lecture, etc. Even to learn about the different customs around the world and the different environments. American students often take a term to do a version of the Grand Tour called Study Abroad. I had the privilege and misfirtune as well of trying to to lead such students for a term - but it was a lost cause because their main pressure was to get good grades so they could get a scholarship to higher vocational traiining (law, mdicine, business and PR, etc). SEveral times I showed a video of Alan Watts giving a lecture on how meaningless it was to do a a routine and usually toilsome job for 40 years in order to retire to retire at 65 and then try to 'really enjoy' life by doing a hobby, or travelling abroad for no real reason. But after retirement most of us now are so medically impaired even if we live for another 20 years, half of that will be time will be spent in ill-health. One student got it, thanked me, but siad that she had spent more than ten thousand dollars to do the study abroad as part of her cv, so thank you very much, but i will ignore Alan Watts.